“I… see,” Vir replied, downcast and began massaging his temples.
“How long was I out? I never asked.”
“Two and a half of your sleep cycles.”
“Two days!” Vir exclaimed. “I need to get back to…” his voice trailed off.
“Lady Ashani… This is Mahādi, isn’t it? The lost City of the Gods?”
Ashani’s eyes widened. “I am surprised you know of it! Indeed. This is the capital city of the largest civilization that spanned the realm. At least, it was.”
Vir wanted nothing more than to drill Ashani about that topic, but there was a more pressing matter to discuss.
“Can you send me back? To where I came from?”
It’d taken Vir some time to work up the courage to ask. What were the chances? Even if a goddess like her could make Ash Gates, who was to say she could return him? What if he ended up on his own, separated by half a realm?
“Of course! I can send you back whenever you wish! Do you desire to return now?”
“Oh,” Vir said. “That’s, er… not what I’d expected.”
I can go back? Seriously?
“How else would I have created those Ash Tears to watch you?” Ashani asked.
“So that was you. It felt like those gates weren’t random.”
The goddess chuckled. “Indeed. Life can be somewhat boring here. Long ago, I stumbled upon that Mahakurma. I’ve been keeping tabs on it ever since. ’Tis easier than the other beasts, for it does not often move.”
“So. You can make Ash Gates wherever you like?” Vir asked incredulously.
“Yes, though I cannot control the placement of the initial gate,” Ashani replied. “Once I have established a gate at a particular location, however, I can recreate that gate at will, assuming I am standing at the same location as before.”
“That’s incredible.”
Ashani beamed with pride. “So? Shall I send you back now?” she asked, surprisingly shyly.
Vir hesitated. Should he go back, though? If this truly was Mahādi, then he’d stumbled upon the very core of the Ashen Realm. The prana density that had nearly killed him proved that. It was the very place Shardul and Ekanai wanted him to come. Janak told him to meet him there… When he was ready. Vir didn’t feel anywhere close to ready, but he was here now. How many chances would he get?
While he wished to return to Cirayus, if he was right…
“Er, Lady Ashani, do you know how time passes in the regular Ashen Realm compared to here?”
“I have never once ventured outside this realm, but from my snooping, I can say that the outside world appears nearly frozen. Only the densest parts of the Ashen Realm move discernibly.”
So, time flows many, many times slower in the Ashen Realm outside, Vir thought. Then I have no reason to return right away.
Even if he couldn’t know the exact rate at which time flowed, the difference was obviously quite dramatic, here in the deepest part of the Ash.
Maybe I ought to linger here a bit.
There was no telling what secrets Ashani could teach him. Perhaps even secrets about himself, and those who came before.
“Ash gate creation should not be underestimated,” Ashani said, standing straight. “But Ashani’s powers are vast and many. She can send you back whenever you like.”
Does she think I don’t believe her? Am I… supposed to praise her? Yeah, she definitely looks like she wants me to praise her.
“That’s truly impressive. I can’t even imagine how you create those gates,” Vir said, and he meant every word. The feat wasn’t just spectacular, it was the kind of thing he’d expect from gods.
Vir omitted how she’d slipped back to her third-person dialect. Maybe she was trying to come across as humble?
“Neither can I,” she said. “Truthfully, I do not know the workings behind the creation of these gates. ’Twas not a power bestowed upon me by my creator.”
“How’s that possible? Did another god—er, Imperium researcher—give it to you?”
Ashani shook her head. “How else does one obtain great power? At terrible cost. Come,” she said, exiting the room.
Vir followed her through an unadorned hallway to a door, which dissolved into nothingness when she approached. Vir stepped outside onto a landing. Like the lift at Balindam’s Lower City, it descended to the street, though it required neither rope nor manpower to do so.
A half dozen Ash Wolves lounged nearby, as if guarding the entrance to Ashani’s home.
No, not as if, Vir thought. They were guarding her home.
They perked up at her approach, whining affectionately, each vying for her attention.
“They’re quite gentle creatures once you get to know them,” she said, petting one beast after another. “And very loyal!”
Vir didn’t know if it was on account of the prana density, or if they were simply a different breed, but Ashani’s wolves were half again as large as the ones he’d fought in the Ash.
So large, in fact, that Ashani barely had to reach down to pet them.
Feels wrong to call them Ash Wolves, Vir thought. Based on their prana signature and the way they fought, Vir wouldn’t be surprised if they came to Balar 100 each.
Ashfire Wolf. That’s a good name. The prana that burned off their hides resembled black flame.
Vir approached one, but it loped away, clearly unwilling to be pet by the likes of him.
“Please don’t mind his reaction. They’ve known only me until now. They’re simply shy.”
Felt more like indignation than shyness, Vir thought, but he didn’t press the issue.
“I didn’t even know Ash Beasts could be trained,” he said.
“Most cannot, not without erasing their minds,” Ashani replied. “Ash Wolves are one of the few beasts with both the right disposition and intellect to be trained. Though all beasts in this realm go mad shortly after birth, I’m afraid.”
“Did you help them out?” Vir asked, imagining a day when he might have a wolf as a companion himself. He missed Neel dearly. Nothing could replace Neel, of course, but having an Ash Beast at his side would be of tremendous help in battle.
While he had to be careful sending Neel into danger, he’d have to worry more for his enemies, rather than an Ash Wolf. Besides, Vir could scarcely imagine the sheer presence an Ash Wolf pet would command, in either the Human or Demon Realms.
People would piss their pants! Vir thought giddily.
“I did,” Ashani said. “I happened upon a litter some time ago. I administered a similar treatment to the one I gave you. You could say I raised them.”
The avian beast’s corpse had been disposed of—there wasn’t even a trace of their battle. No damaged buildings, no blood. Nothing.
Lightning cracked in the skies above. A soul-shattering roar shook the world.
Vir looked up.
“Is that…”
“A Wyrm. She has been here from the very beginning.”
“She?” Vir asked.
Ashani pointed up, to the top of a nearby building. “There. Follow me.”
She moved near-instantaneously, disappearing from sight.
Vir craned his neck to see where she’d gone. All the nearby buildings soared to dizzying heights, making for a bizarre environment unlike any city Vir had ever experienced. Humans simply didn’t have the magic to create such impossibly tall structures. They loomed over the street like sentinels, casting long shadows upon the ground.
Vir Leaped up, grabbing onto a protrusion on the side of the building that contained Janak’s home. It took several more Leaps to make it to the roof, but he got there easily enough.
When he did, Vir nearly stumbled when he took in the scenery, and it wasn’t on account of the stiff breeze. For the first time since setting foot in this realm, his eyes took in the whole city. Mahādi.